


SEALs do not drown

by Geshem



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Case Fic, Gen, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-23 12:51:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13788147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geshem/pseuds/Geshem
Summary: "Horrified, Danny could see the exact moment when his partner, finally, gave up. Steve's eyes remained open, his lips slightly apart, but the continuous string of bubbles coming out of his mouth, came to an abrupt halt..."Originally posted in FFNet





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Beta-ed by my friend Yul. She's the best.

 

Horrified, Danny could see the exact moment when his partner, finally, gave up. Steve's eyes remained open, his lips slightly apart, but the continuous string of bubbles coming out of his mouth, came to an abrupt halt. For a moment it seemed to Danny that the only movement was the horrific, dancing strands of red, twirling slowly in the water around him, like wisps of smoke rising lazily from Steve's abdomen, where the harpoon spear pierced his body.  

His own lungs were screaming at him to inhale, and for a second there, as he looked at his partner's now peaceful expression, Danny thought how easy it would be to surrender, as Steve did, to this demand, right here. To let the water fill his lungs, rather than abandon his brother.

It was Chin that woke Danny from the hypnotizing, calm look of his friend's lifeless eyes.

Chin moved quickly past him, holding the air regulator connected to the air tank on his back and pushing it into Steve's mouth, pressing the demand button to clear the water and release the air. In his other hand he pushed Danny away, motioning him with a raised thumb to rush to the surface.

Danny complied immediately. He was not ready to give up, even though it seems that the SEAL did. They still needed to find some way to release Steve from the deadly grip of the ocean he loved, and it had to be now.

* * *

Chapter 1

**_"You've never been good at first impressions" - Catherine Rollins_** _,_ _ **(s3e8**_   ** _Wahine'inoloa_** ** _)_**

_30 hours earlier_

"What have we got?" Steve was throwing the question the minute Kono stepped into his view. But his attention was pulled towards a woman standing a few feet away rather than the two bodies sprawled on the hotel kitchen floor next to him.

"Two bodies, one hand gun." Kono started. she looked up from the bodies as she spoke, catching the look on her boss's face, following his gaze as she continued "they were found here this morning by one of the kitchen staff. There were no repor…what is it boss?"

"Who is she?" Steve indicated to the young woman with a small nod of his head. At the exact same moment her eyes moved slightly to meet his gaze. She held it for two seconds, her expression unreadable, and then she turned and walked away.

Steve didn't even try to contain the irrational urge to follow. He moved quickly around the bodies in wide steps then a slow jog.

"Hey, Steve, the Crime Scene? it is over here..." Danny called after him, but immediately followed.

The woman disappeared through the back door of the kitchen. Steve followed into the service area behind, then through the large doors leading to the supply garage. The lot outside was littered with HPD cars and cops. Steve stood on the elevated platform and looked around.

"What is it?" Danny asked as he reached him.

Steve did not answer, just jumped down the platform and moved away.

"OK, fine, ignore me," Danny stated, "I'll just keep following you around like a good dog."

Steve approached the nearest officer standing by. "Hey, did you just see a woman, about five eight, brown hair in a ponytail, blue T, black jeans?"

The officer shook his head, but Steve persisted "she just came out of the garage door over there". "I'm sorry; sir" the cop shook his head again "didn't see her"

Steve went on, his eyes searching the area, stopping from time to time to ask another officer, until his partner grabbed his arm forcing him to turn around.

"What is it Steve? Who is she?"

"I don't know." Steve answered, not looking at his partner, his eyes still busy with something else.

"You don't know?" Danny retorted "You do not know? So what are you doing? did she look suspicions? Did she have a gun that might indicate a connection to the bodies in there, " he flailed his hands towards the hotel behind him "which seem to be hosting few extra holes, but then again you wouldn't know that since you did not bother to look…"

Steve finally focused on his partner, as Danny's ranting became the more imminent matter than the mystery woman's disappearance. He directed his stare at Danny. "I don't know, Danny. Something about her just seemed…off"

"Seemed off?" Danny exclaimed "Well, then, let's clear out, no need to check anything else. Let's just go and arrest the brown ponytail lady. I am pretty sure that brown ponytail atrocities are included in the 'Full Immunity and Means' thing we got going here."

"What do you want, Danny?" Steve was starting to get annoyed, "I'm telling you, there was something about her. What did she do in the middle of an active crime scene? And how did she leave so fast without anyone noticing?"

Danny sighed "OK, Steve, You have her description, maybe she's a witness or something, maybe she pulled the trigger. If she's connected to all this, we will find her. Come on. Let's go back and do it right."

* * *

Not long after, they were all huddled around the smart table, Kono's quick fingers dancing over it.

"OK, so Max says two different guns did the killing." She started to explain "The one we found at the scene, 9mm Glock, seems to have killed this guy" she swiped her hand over the table, and the picture of a very dead middle aged man with thick gray hair and curly beard showed up on one of the screens. "COD Three shots, center mass. He was identified as Aaron Brown, worked in the hotel kitchen as a cook's aid for the past month."

"And here I thought they were called sous chefs these days" Lou said with a half grin;

"They are," Kono replied seriously, "But he wasn't one. According to the hotel kitchen staff, he was the guy that peeled the potatoes and mopped the floor."

"Aha," said Danny and turned to Steve pointing his finger at him "What you'd call a 'Private'"

"Seaman recruit" Steve corrected, "Go on Kono".

"There is powder residue that indicates that our other dead guy" she swiped again and the photo of a young man, short blonde military haircut and a small scar splitting his left eyebrow, showed up "was the one to pull the trigger. His COD is a 9mm to the back of the head, close range. He was identified as Andrew Marks, checked into the hotel two days ago, license is from Pittsburg Pennsylvania"

"So a tourist from the mainland shoots a…" Lou struggles for the word "seaman…cook's aid and then… someone sneaks up behind him and shoots him in the back?"

"He could have been forced to shoot, at gunpoint." Steve looked at Danny, remembering well how his partner shot Step-Stan when his daughter's life was on the line.

Danny returned Steve's gaze, slight smile on his lips "Or maybe the gun was planted in his hand immediately after the shooting…except no Taser to incapacitate this time. Just plain bullet to the head."

"OK," Steve nods, "That is an option. But let's check there are no kidnapped relatives involved here."

"That might be a problem," Kono continued "both identities are fake. We have no registration of these men; they seem to have been born in the last month. I'm running fingerprints as well as face recognition on both, no results yet."

"What about the woman?" Steve asked, causing Danny to exasperate loudly, dropping his head.

"Sorry, boss." Kono replied, "No clear shot from the security cams in the hotel and nothing came up in face recognition based on the portrait."

"Nothing? DMV? Hotel registration? Bing?"

"I know what you are thinking, big guy" Danny interjected, "but it doesn't mean anything. She could be a foreign tourist without a Facebook account"

"Would you like me to search airport cams?" Kono suggested immediately, causing Danny to wave his hands in one swift motion, but strangely he didn't seem to have anything verbal to add.

"Yes." Steve answered, "Low priority," he added looking at Danny, hoping this would ease the objections, "But please do. I think she is connected somehow."

Kono's phone rang; she looked at the screen and then placed the phone on the table before turning the speaker on "Eric, what have you got for us?"

"Hey, listen; I finished processing the gun from the scene. Get this. It is not a standard issue Glock. I put a request for information from the company, but I thought maybe McGarrett can have a look"

"OK," The head of five-0 looked at his team around the table, "Chin, Lou, you go back to the hotel, try and see if you find anything, anyone that was seen with our shooting vic. Try adjacent rooms, check anyone that checked in around the time he did. Do we have a known address for the cook's aid?" Kono confirmed with a nod "than that is next." McGarrett continued "Kono, you work on getting us the vics identities… and that woman. Danny and I will head over to the lab and see what Eric is talking about."

* * *

As they reached the forensic lab, Steve and Danny found a confused Eric hovering over a binocular.

"Hey, uncle D…tective Williams, Commander, what's up?"

"Hello, Eric," Danny emphasizes the full name, "you wanted to show the Guns Whisperer here something?"

Eric wore a perplexed half smile, one reserved for college kids not sure if someone is messing with them. "What? It was already…I thought" He stopped and swallowed. "…it was sent to your HQ".

"What do you mean?"

"You requested to send the gun over," he walked nervously to his computer, "I thought you meant right away and I sent it."

"I didn't request anything like that," Steve allowed some impatience to seep into his voice "Why would you think I did?"

Eric's fingers moved feverishly over the keyboard "here, see?"

The message on the screen came from Steve's account, and indeed was very clear. Danny didn't waste time and called Kono.

"OK," Steve shuffled his weight from one leg to the other, "who took it and when?"

"Ummm" Eric picked up the form from the top of his high desk, "officer Lankri, about five minutes ago."

"Kono did not send this request," Danny filled him in while still on the phone with her. Steve was already halfway out of the lab. "She's tracking down Lankri's car and sending us the coordinates." Danny swallowed lightly preparing himself to the wild ride he knew was coming and ran after his partner.

They found the police car on a side street, passenger door open. One of the cops was sprawled on the floor next to it, and standing besides him, reaching above him, pulling herself back from the car, then looking straight at them, was a woman with a brown ponytail.

She turned away; dropping what was undoubtedly the gun from the lab, into a small black backpack and disappeared into an ally.

With high pitch screech, Steve brought the Camaro to a halt behind the police car.

"Danny!" he shouted as he jumped out of the car

"I got this! Go!" Danny followed, and as his partner ran after the mystery woman he turned toward the fallen cops.

Steve caught a glance of the woman climbing a fire escape ladder further down the alley. She was fast, and agile, but he was determined not to lose her again. For a while he tried to keep his chase quiet, but he saw that she quickly realized he was after her. She turned her head to look at him for a second, then suddenly turned from the stairs and entered the building through an open window on the sixth floor. Steve, coming right after her, had to ignore the frightened couple inside as he rushed through the apartment. A quick glance up and down the staircase he managed to determine she was going up. Since he had no visual as he rushed up the stairs after her, he made an effort to control his loud breathing and crushing footsteps so he would be able to hear hers.

Shortly enough he could hear a heavy door being slammed, he was sure it was the roof entrance. He was out the door just in time to see her disappearing over the ledge. Without hesitationת he too jumped over the ledge, ending his fall with a roll. This woman made him work. She was fiddling with something on the other side of the next rooftop. He was still trying to figure out what it was as he kept running at full speed after her, when again, holding some contraption in her hands, she jumped over the ledge. This time he saw the cable stretching out from the side of the building to a fire escape railing, low, on the other side of the street. She was definitely ready for this chase.

Steve quickly looked around and then picked up a metal pipe discarded on the roof. Danny was not there, but nevertheless he could hear him in his mind saying something about his disregard for his own safety and common sense. It did not stop him from balancing himself as he hung from the cable using the pipe as a zip line pulley to slide down.

While the mystery woman's descent was paced and controlled, his was not. He moved fast. Too fast. He would surely catch up to her this way, but there was no way he would be able to stop.

She must have sensed his weight on the cable, because she turned her head slightly backwards. He, on the other hand, had very little time to think. They were reaching the end of their rope, literally, the ground was ten feet beneath them, and she was ready to leave the cable and drop.

Steve stretched, pulling his body backwards then swinging forward as he left the pipe and used his momentum to throw himself at her. They connected, moving forward still, and landed inside a trash container.

The very well trained SEAL thought that there had to be something of a cat in her, because his full body weight was on her and she still managed to slip under him, punching his gut on her way, before he could even come to the conclusion they actually landed. Her foot shot backwards violently as she tried to stand up pulling herself out of the container. This he saw and dodged, but the fragment of a second it took him was enough for her to jump out. He was right on her heels, balancing on the edge of the container then jumping forward again, his full 175 pounds pulling her down to the pavement.

That too did not seem to stop her. He felt her heel digging into his knee, her elbow in his ribs, and the back of her skull collided with the side of his mouth. This made him release his grip ever so slightly, but that was enough for her. She pushed, squirmed, punched and kicked, and then she was holding a gun. Steve immediately reach for his own, but realized, as she steadied herself standing above him and aiming a gun to his face, that it was his gun she was holding.

The next few seconds, without the two of them coordinating it, were dedicated to breathing. Steve half sitting on the pavement, leaning backwards a bit, both hands raised palms out in a surrender gesture. The brown ponytail woman was standing legs apart, knees slightly bent, holding his gun in both hands aiming it at him. He could see a smudge of blood covering her right cheek, where she hit the pavement. He also noticed that just as he did, she was quickly gaining back control of her breathing and trembling muscles.

She spoke first.

"Commander," she breathed, "I heard you were… intense, but that was…more than I expected." Her voice was surprisingly low and pleasant.

"Who are you?" was all Steve could come up with

She ignored his question. "This was fun, but I've had enough." Contrary to her words, her expression was serious, tinged with exasperation. She took a few steps backwards.

In response, he moved to get up, but she motioned slightly with the gun, and he was sure that had she wanted, he'd be dead.


	2. Chapter 2

**"Think twice next time you wanna drop in on someone's wave" Kono Kalakaua (S1e1, Pilot)**

 

Shortly after his partner disappeared into the ally, Danny was relieved to find out that both cops were alive. They were also pissed. And embarrassed.

They fell for the damsel-in-distress trick pretty easily, and got played, but aside from few bruises and maybe a mild concussion, they were fine.

However, the lack of anything urgent to attend to, caused the relief to turn to concern. Then worry. His partner now chased an obviously dangerous suspect, one that might have killed one or more people, without backup. And he stayed behind for no good reason.

The detective looked at his phone, fighting the urge to call Steve- it made no sense to do that, the super sailor was probably flying through the air this very minute. Instead he called CSU, inviting them to process the scene. With the slight chance that Steve would not catch her, she might have left some prints or DNA on site.

Luckily, when he was done with that, Kono called.

"Hey, where's Steve? He's not answering his phone" came her voice over the line

"Risking his life dangling off of some building, no doubt." Danny answered. "Long story," he continued as he heard the question mark on the other side of the phone, "What have you got?"

"A positive ID on the Gray haired bearded Vic. Interpol database. Miran Jeran, AKA 'The Engineer'. Rendered his technical services to several terrorist organizations and made the hit list of many intelligence agencies."

"Whoa, A terrorist? Isn't that great! Hey, tell Chin and Lou to hold off on examining his house, I'm sure our fierce leader would want in on this." He looked up; the worry becomes relief as he saw Steve coming down the street. "Speaking of the reckless devil, he's back. Keep me posted, Kono." He hung up, and walked quickly towards his approaching partner. Steve was uncharacteristically slow and with an obvious limp. Blood was smeared at the corner of his mouth and his left hand held to his side. The skin on his right arm was chafed, dotted with several actively bleeding wounds. His left sleeve was torn. Danny was back from relieved to concerned.

"You ok, buddy?"

"Yeah. I lost her"

"Indeed, I could not help but notice the lack of a girl on your arm. I do notice, however, the newly formed array of injuries. What did you do, did you scare her away with your overly theatrical ninja moves? She didn't appreciate your jumping off rooftops for her?"

"That’s funny, Danny" Steve wiped his bloody lip with the back of his hand, smearing some more blood to his jaw line and allowing some fresh drops to accumulate at the same place.  "Call Kono, tell her to track down my phone, It’s a long shot, but she has it."

"She? As in brown ponytail woman? She got your phone? How did she get your phone?"

"She asked for in nicely while holding a Gun to my face." Steve's voice raised slightly, the annoyance obvious now, "How are the cops she attacked?"

"They are fine," Danny answered, "better than you, I dare say." Danny punched his phone and held it to his ear, walking after Steve who determinately limped to the back of the Camaro, opened the trunk and pulled first aid kit.

"Kono, can you please track Steve's phone right now"

"Sure thing," she answered immediately, and then a slight worry crept into her voice "Didn't you just say he's with you?"

"Yeah, yeah, he is right here, safe and sound, well, mostly. He was separated from his phone though."

"Oh, OK. I'm sorry, no signal."

"No signal," Danny echoed Kono's report to Steve. "Would you mind telling me what happened?"

Steve held gauze to the side of his mouth, as he stared at the detective with a piercing gaze. "I had her, Danny." he said frustrated, "I had her, then she took my gun and got away."

"She took your gun?!" Danny almost shouted. He could not imagine how a five feet seven woman could ever take the Super Seal's gun. Hell, he couldn't imagine how a ten feet giant would be able to do that.

"Yes," Steve’s frustration became anger "She took my Gun, she took my phone, she busted my damn knee, and she took off. I'm telling you, she is not your average civilian, she’s had training, Special Forces or something."

"Well, nothing is ever average with you, buddy." Danny waved one hand, then put it gently on his partner’s shoulder, trying to quiet down his obvious distress. He lowered his gaze for a second, and saw the giant SIG safely tucked in its holster on Steve's hip. His eyes continued down the leg, where another bulge, indicating the second gun, was exactly where is should be. "Aha, Steve, you sure it was _your_ gun she was waving?"

Steve seemed more than ready to drop this subject, his voice, as his words, were suddenly detached. He rolled up his shirt now, examining the nasty bruise just below his ribs. "Yeah, she didn't keep it."

Danny got the message, as tempting as it was to tease the guy about getting his ass kicked, and as annoying as it was not getting the full story straight, he decided to play along and move on. He just wished the two poor cops could hear what little information Steve gave up, he was sure it would make them feel better.

"OK, CSU are on their way here to process the scene, see if she left something behind. If she is Special Forces, she will be somewhere in the system, right?"

"Yes." Steve took out an evidence bag from one of his pockets and a slightly smudged fabric from another, solving the mystery of the missing left sleeve of his shirt. "She left DNA behind." He waved the fabric lightly before putting it in the bag. "Let's get it to the lab. You and me." He added after a quick glance at the cops who just dropped the evidence they were transferring.

Danny considered saying something encouraging about the fact that he got her bleeding as well, but decided it would have the opposite effect on his now touchy partner. Besides, Steve was already getting in the driver's seat.

"Are you sure you can drive?" He asked without really expecting an answer, and rushed to enter the passenger side.  

* * *

They returned to the lab with the fabric stained with the blood of the Brown ponytail woman- Danny sincerely hoped they would be able to give her a more reasonable name soon, and were briefed about the results of a short investigation into the hacking of the lab computer. It was clear it was done hastily; the woman didn't bother trying to cover it up. It was also clear that the hacking was done to the lab itself and not to the Five-0 servers. They traced it back to an internet café around the corner of where the police cruiser was intercepted, and HPD was sent to get some prints and maybe clear facial shots of the woman, although Steve was pretty sure they wouldn't find any.

It seemed to Danny that the more they spoke of her, the initially resentful Commander was growing more and more respectful towards her, replacing his anger with…well, admiration. At least his bruised ego was healing quickly.

Danny briefed Steve about the identity of the first vic as a known terrorist. As the detective expected, hearing the T-word caused the Five-0 leader to become even more eager to jump into action, if that was possible. They were just heading toward HQ, Danny convinced him to at least change the shirt and get some bandages on his chafed arm before they continue to investigate the last known address of the terrorist.

As they passed through the double glass doors, Kono waved them over. In his attempts to redeem himself, Eric worked hard to get an answer from Glock Company about the gun. The reply, for now, was unofficial but reliable. The Gun was custom made, ordered according to a design submitted by the Israeli Special Forces.

Eric did not get the well-deserved praises he hoped for, as this piece of information caused all three Five-0 members standing around the table to fall silence.

"Are you sure?" Steve asked finally.  After the third "Hello??" came through the speakers,

Eric confirmed, got a general mumbled thanks and that was it.

"So, what are we thinking?" asked Steve.

"Maybe it was stolen, smuggled, sold to some crime organization here…" Danny tried

"I don't think so" Kono interjected. Her fingers came to life again, gliding over the table. "I looked into Jaren's, our terrorist vic, handy work." She loaded a video on one of the screens. It was a CNN news report, showing images of what seem to be a shopping center entrance. A few cars on fire, police and ambulances emergency lights filled the dark surroundings of the scene, people running, close-ups of bloodied, agonized, shocked faces, images of pools of blood on the pavements. The running headline said 'World News: Car bomb in mid Tel-Aviv, Israel'.

"There were 14 civilian fatalities, and over 50 wounded in this." Kono explained quietly, "Families, Students on vacation. The bomb design was credited to Jaren."

They were silent for a while, the images kept repeating themselves and Kono shut off the video.

Before anyone could say something their attention was drawn to the office’s double doors as they were opened. An HPD officer held them and two men walked in. One was wearing a very Hawaiian-weather-inappropriate suit, the other Hawaiian patterned shirt and light pants. They both stepped in, full of aggressive purpose and walked right up to the table.

Kono, intuition or experience guiding her, shut down all images in the surrounding screens.

"Commander McGarrett?" said the man in the suit, "I'm agent Coldwell, CIA" he pulled a badge from his jacket inner pocket and displayed it to an openly annoyed McGarrett. "Might we have a word in your office?"   
Steve nodded, "After you,". He motioned to his office, both men entered but Steve remained behind. "Kono," He said quietly after the door closed behind the pair "Call Chin and Lou, tell them not to wait and check Jeran's home now." Danny understood Steve guessed what was coming, and he was not ready to give up this case so easily, "Tell them to shut down their phones. They should call HQ only once they finished."

Kono nodded. Steve signaled to Danny and they both entered his office. The Commander went around his Table, standing tall with his arms crossed on his chest, and even with his beaten-up-ripped-shirt-bloodied-arm appearance, Danny was impressed at how he managed to look ominous. Or maybe it was because of it.

"How can I help you Agent Coldwell?" Steve asked. His focus was on the man in front of him, his adversary until proven otherwise.

Danny was more interested in the Hawaiian-shirt guy, who took a position in the corner of the room while everyone else seemed to ignore his existence. He noticed that the man showed much interest in the sketch of Miss Brown ponytail she-ninja, still lying on Steve's desk.

"Very Simple, Commander. The CIA is taking over the Jaren investigation. You are to hand over any information that you have till now, and the evidence collected by your CSU. The bodies are being transferred as we speak."

Well. No surprise there. The look on McGarret's face remained the same. He kept silent for a few seconds, and Danny relinquished his investigative stare on the guy in the corner to have a look at his partner.

"I see." Commander McGarrett finally said. "From what I have learned, I understand the interest the CIA has in this case. But you should be aware that when it comes to terrorist threats on my Island, I will not stand down. I will gladly cooperate with the CIA," Danny held back a chuckle, "But I will not back off."

"You have little choice Commander" Coldwell said, causing Danny to grimace and hiss silently. Steve's face remained cold and expressionless.

"Maybe." He answered "But you are mistaken to think **you** have **any** choice."

"I love the smell of testosterone in the morning" Danny remarked, a dreamy smile over his face, earning him a surprised look from the agent and an annoyed look from the Commander. It seems that the only man appreciating his astute sense of humor was the Hawaiian shirt guy who was apparently smiling.

“Look, Agent,” Danny continued after clearing his throat, “You must know that Five-0 worked with Langley before. You must also know that the middle name of our Jack-of-all-traits leader here" he pointed at Steve "is 'Classified'. So we can help, and stay discrete, or you can try and shut him out and have him running blindly flailing his diverse weaponry arsenal, interfering with your work on every step, because believe me, I've been working with this guy for a few years now and he has no 'back-off' button. I’ve looked for it. There isn’t one."

There was silence. Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett and CIA Agent Coldwell were both staring at him, their expressions drilling holes in him. At least they agreed on something.

The Hawaiian shirt guy, however, showed a renewed interest in the portrait on Steve’s desk. He took three steps forward and picked up the page, holding it up in front of the Commander.

“You’ve encountered this woman.” he stated. The man’s eyes suddenly seemed to explore the SEAL’s injuries, the lingering smile that appeared on his face at Danny’s first comment took on a disturbing touch.

“Who are you?” Steve shot.

“Her superior.” the man answered.

Danny could see the slight change in Steve stance, the short flicker in his eyes.

“Israeli Mossad.” The Navy Commander said, his full attention on the man now.

From the corner of his eye, Danny could see Agent Coldwell flinch.

“Very Good, Commander.” the man confirmed. he lay the page carefully back on the desk and offered his right hand. “Yaron Zehavi.” Steve took his hand, and the man continued “If our friend here,” he looked over to agent coldwell “will allow, I think we can use your help.” Coldwell was definitely not happy, but didn't speak, so Zehavi continued.

"Please, tell me, what have you found out?"

Steve hesitated for a second, but then he let his arm fall to his side, and it seemed some of the tension  has left his body. He now completely ignored Coldwell and was entirely focused on the Mossad agent.

"We know one of the victims is Jaren, 'The Engineer'. We know he was shot by a gun associated with Israeli Special Forces. We know your agent invested some effort in stealing this gun from us, including hacking our CSU servers and assaulting two police officers."

"Three." Danny could not help himself, but his remark went unnoticed.

Zehavi now spoke "Her name is Ya'el Ezra. She is dangerous and most capable, as you already know. And she is currently working on an unsanctioned mission in… **your** island. I'd like to believe her motives are pure, but at this point we really do not know. We assume that she and her partner, whom you’ve also encounter, were the ones to assassinate Jaren."

"Vic no. two" Danny interjected

"Correct." Zehavi confirmed.

"What went wrong?"

Zehavi's relaxed manner changed a little, he straightened his back and took a deep breath. His expression became somewhat pained "As I told you, we do not really know."

Agent Coldwell seemed to return to life at this point. "We found some evidence that suggests they might be involved in illegal activity for a while now. Trading secrets and weaponry to terrorist organizations. We think that it might have been a money dispute or extortion, that caused Ezra to assassinate Jaren and turn on her partner."

"A rouge Israeli Mossad Agent?" Danny broke the silence, digging one of his hands into his pocket, arching his back a little and waving the other hand theatrically "We’ve never had that here."

"Commander," Zehavi said seriously "Do you think you can help us find her?"

"I believe we can, sir." Steve replied immediately.

"Good." He took out a small card from his pocket and handed it to Steve "Please, call me if you have any leads. She is dangerous. Very. She is also my subordinate. She would listen to me. I need this situation contained." Danny was impressed by the way the Israeli agent managed to sound so desperate as well as entirely casual in that last sentence.

Maybe it was the ridiculous Hawaiian shirt.

Danny’s eyes followed the two agents as the doors closed behind them. But he felt his partner's eyes burning a hole in his back.

"What?"

"I will never ever run **blindly** flailing my gun." Steve said harshly.

"Yeah, you and I know that. They do not. It worked, didn't it?"

"That it did, my friend."


	3. Chapter 3

**“What is your problem with the ocean? Who hates water? Sixty percent of the human body is water!” - Steve McGarrett (S3e3, Lana I Ka Moana)**

 

The rest of the day was painfully uneventful. They received some more information about the second vic- Israeli agent Ido Goldman, and the still living agent, Ya'el Ezra. But there was really nothing significant about it. Nothing to explain why anyone would think they were dirty. 

As much as Steve was used to accept the "Classified Information" excuse to prevent them from getting the good stuff, he felt like he was expected to find something in complete darkness. Chin and Lou reported back an hour or so later, bringing the terrorist’s small apartment with them as they photographed every inch of it. Sadly it was almost completely clean. Ezra's doing, or the CIA's, it was not clear. The only finding was a note fished from the garbage that read “Andrea 4/13” which led to nothing practical. They had a date, but no possible Andrea showed up in any search, and the location remained unknown. 

Their only hope was using the several sightings of Ezra, and the identity and description of her partner, to start building a map leading them to her possible base of operations. Or bases.

But basically, they just waited for her to surface.  

 

Steve barricaded himself in his office, his attention alternating from the phone to the laptop, reaching out to all his connections to get some more information. The bruise on his side still hurt when he made sudden movements, but his knee seemed to behave itself, as long as it was not required to alternate between bending and straightening. What was most disturbing was the fact that no one could tell him anything.

He hope that Zehavi, without the uptight agent Coldwell guarding him, would be willing to give up some more information. But even after half an hour of conversation, Steve realized that he heard nothing new. Ya’el and her partner have been off the radar for awhile now, supposedly tracking down Jaren. It was a mission they took upon themselves and went dark after entering the US several weeks ago. 

 

The next morning, Danny stepped into Steve’s office, a look of determination on his face, his hands ready to assist any demand or sermon he intended to present. Steve knew that a lack of any leads or some kind of progress was frustrating to all of them. It felt like they spent half the night chasing ghosts. So he readied himself, leaning back in his chair.

But before Danny had a chance to say anything, a soft beep came from the common area and Kono tapped the glass door and motioned them to hurry out.

“Your phone just came back to life, Steve” she blurted as they came out of the office.

“Where?”

“North Shore Marina”

“Alright,” Said the Head of Five-0 after a second thought “Let’s go.”

 

* * *

Steve could feel Danny’s gaze upon him as he navigated the Camaro through the heavy morning traffic with the sirens wailing. The fact that his partner wasn’t busy following the road and willing the cars, sidewalks, lamp posts and pedestrians to get out of their way, but instead was staring at him, was disturbing.

“What?” Steve asked, annoyed

“At what point do you plan on calling this Zehavi guy?” Danny inquired.

Steve took a moment to answer “I’m thinking about it.”

“Thinking about it? What does that mean, thinking about it? What is there to think about, it is obviously her, she obviously knows we are monitoring your phone, and she’s obviously not done with you.”

“You’re probably right,” Steve had to admit to himself he was excited about this. Curious to see what her next move would be.

“You are smiling! Why are you smiling? Need I remind you where your last encounter with her took you? She is a trained killer…”

“I am a trained killer myself, Danny”

“And she had YOUR gun in your face! she killed her own partner, Steven, were you in the same room with me and those two agent clowns?”

“I don’t think she did.”

“You don’t think?”

“No, look, something is really off about this. If she were there at the time of the murder, why would she leave behind the gun she didn’t want us to have?”

“Maybe she had to run, maybe someone was coming, maybe she is stupid”

“She is not stupid”

Danny continued without a pause “Why does it matter? If it’s her now, I would really think Zehavi should be there to make sure she doesn’t kill you or me or anyone else standing around.”

“OK, if it is her, we’ll call him. As far as we know, she dumped the phone somewhere, and it was found by a hobo and we would all feel embarrassed to call up the CIA and Mossad for this.” Steve knew in his gut that this was not the case. Unfortunately for him, Danny knew that too.

“Come on, you know it’s not true…”

“It could be true”

“You are going to get us killed.”

“Relax, Danny, If she wanted me dead she could have done it, she certainly had the chance.”

“You are smiling again! what the hell is wrong with you?”

“Danny, seriously, we will be careful, she is just one woman…”

“Professional killer, super secret agent woman”

“And we are four, she is only one, and Lou is ready to call HPD and the CIA if needed.”

Danny’s phone was ringing, Steve answered it hurriedly hoping it will shut his partner up, even if just for a little while.

“You there, McGarrett?” Came Lou’s voice over the speaker

“You know you called  **my** phone?” Danny snapped

“Yeah, I figured McGarrett took hold of it anyway” Lou sounded amused, Danny breathed loudly

“What’s up Lou?” Steve asked

“Your phone is on the move,” Lou informed “out to the ocean. She must have a boat.”

“Then we need one too.”

“I took the liberty to notify the coast guard, they will have a boat ready for you at pier 36.”

“Good job, Lou.”

“Yeah,” Danny sounded miserable “Great job.”  

 

Fully geared and armed, four Five-0 team members boarded the small patrol boat waiting for them at the pier. Grover called shortly after, saying that McGarrett’s phone was stationary again, about 13 miles off shore, and sent them the coordinates.

 

With Steve at the wheel and the welcoming, calm ocean, they spotted the small yacht 15 minutes later. Chin, scanning it with binoculars, reported that there was someone on deck, looking straight at them. A few minutes after that, they were close enough to see the woman. She was wearing a light wetsuit, and busied herself with diving gear as they approached. Kono was now navigating the boat, as Steve, Danny and Chin stood with guns at the ready.

“Ya’el Ezra, Five-0” Steve yelled over the motor roar “On your knees, hands behind your head!” 

She looked up, returning his look, then moving her eyes between them, as they boarded her yacht and spread out. 

“Commander, ” She greeted him calmly as she took a small step backwards, put her hands behind her head and got down to her knees.

“Danny! Chin!” Steve ordered, nodding slightly with his head, his eyes not leaving hers. His teammates moved ahead to clear the boat. As soon as Kono joined him he gave her his gun, 

Before moving forward.

That caused the subdued agent’s serious expression to soften a little, it seem she couldn’t help but smile. “I see you learn fast,” she said as he approached her. “I am sorry about our last encounter.” Her eyes moved passed Kono to the boat behind. “Is… anyone else coming…?” 

He was now behind her, cuffing one of her wrists then pulling her back to cuff the other one around the  railing. “You were expecting someone else?”

“No, no” she replied pleasantly “I was hoping you would come alone.”

A shout “Clear!” came from behind them, and she continued “Your team is also welcome, of course.”

Steve looked at her for a second. This was the part where he should search for concealed weapons, but her wetsuit left no room for that.

“Commander, I understand why all this is necessary, but we have little time.”

“Yeah? Why is that?”

“There is an explosives stash right below us. I don’t think it will take long before the owner will come to claim it.”

Steve was silent for a second as he tried to process this information. Danny was looking at him intently, he used that to regain focus.

“Why did you kill your partner?” He asked bluntly. He could see immediately that the question caught the Israeli agent by surprise. Small twitch of her brow, confused look in her eyes. It only lasted a second.

“I did not kill him.” and there it was in her voice as well. 

Steve remained silent, his gaze still fixed on her. It was a simple technic. He would get a chance to get more information this way, it didn’t matter if the subject pained her or if she was lying, most people would feel the need to explain themselves in the face of silent disbelief.

She was not most people. The silence lasted a few more seconds.

“We really have no time, Commander” she finally repeated. “Please, Ask me what you need to know so we can move on. I’ll try to answer as best I can.”

“If it was not you, who was it?”

“I do not know. I intend to find out, but this is our second priority right now.”

“Who is Andrea?” Steve referred to the note found in Jaren’s apartment

She was silent for few seconds, slight crease showed on her brow. “I...don’t know.”

“OK. Tell me about the stash.”

“It was dropped here to avoid detection, a few months ago probably. They left it here until they got a hold of Jaren, whom they believed will be able to utilize it to their satisfaction.”

“Who are they?” 

“Bad guys, who want to blow up the island.” came her most dissatisfying answer. Steve was beginning to feel irritated. He hated needing to fish for information like this, and she was clearly well trained in such interrogations. He was inclined to believe she was not lying, that she is answering his questions truthfully, but it was not much use if he didn’t know what questions to ask, and she would not volunteer any excess information. But she was also stressed. He couldn’t tell if it was due to the reason she stated or something else, but he could use that.

“This is not going well for you.” he hissed. “Book her, Danno.”

“Commander, Please. I need your help.” She somehow managed to sound pleading and demanding at the same time “You do not have to trust me, just go down there, I already set the line. It’s about 65 feet under. I believe there are enough explosives there for several major bombs, and if they needed Jaren it was intended to be used against civilians. Jaren is dead, that definitely stalled their plans, but they will find another way and they will come for the explosives sooner rather than later. You can...book me when we are done here.”

Danny was already fiddling with her cuffs.

“Why did you choose to alert us of your presence? ” Steve asked. “You must have known that your CO is here.”

There was that look again. “I do not trust him.” she said. Danny stopped his fiddling, he was pulling her up again after releasing her from the  railing.

“You trust  **us** ?”

“I have no choice. From what I’ve learned, you and your team are my best chance.”

He was silent, studying her face. Danny set her down again with a sharp move.

“No!” he said, looking at him, “NO! NO!, you are not seriously considering this!”

Truth be told, he was not considering it anymore. He was already removing his vest and taking off his shirt.

“Steven,” Danny was coming towards him, “you are not doing this, come on, we need to call the CIA, the Mossad, let them handle this!”

He was now removing his boots, “I’m just going to take a look. Keep an eye on her. ” he took a scuba mask from the deck “Where’s the line?” 

“The float is over there” she motioned with her chin, and picking up a small weight, Steve jump overboard to the sound of Danny’s loud exasperation.

The water grow colder as he dived deeper, but it did not bother him. He went straight down along the rope, helping the downward pull of the weight he held with slow powerful movements of his thighs. Soon enough, just as Ya’el said, he could see a container slightly tilted on the Ocean’s bed. He circled it once, it seemed to have been there for a while, covered with thin layer of algae. He also noted that the doors were welded shut. Someone wanted to be sure it would not be open till it got to its destination.   
Then, before his lungs started to protest, he swam back up, releasing the air from his lungs at a slow, steady pace.

He broke the surface about four minutes after diving down, Danny’s clearly annoyed and relieved face staring straight at him. 

“You really did get gills implanted sometime during SEAL training don’t you?” the Detective murmured. He reached out to take the weight Steve handed him.

Steve climbed back to the boat, wiping excess water from his face and hair with his hands. 

“There is something down there,” he faced the cuffed agent, “What’s your plan?”

“I have all I need to open the container then float up whatever is inside it. I just need help doing that. I assumed you are qualified.”

Steve was reluctant. Chin might be of help to him in this, maybe Kono. Both felt at home in the water, but neither had any experience in underwater lift bag recovery or explosives. 

“I am qualified.” Ya’el said suddenly, as if reading his thoughts. “Commander, please. let’s not waste any more time.”

 

They were gearing up, The Israeli agent was indeed prepared for this job considering the supplies on board. Steve had to wonder how and where she was able to get her hands on all of this, so he asked, and got shut out with the word ‘classified’. When he threatened with cuffs again, she explained that she had to protect her sources. He was alternating between anger and wonder at how she managed to play him. She somehow knew that once he decided to trust her, he will see it through.

Danny, on the other hand, was very opposed to the mission.

“Buddy, Please, Think about it.” he was begging yet again, after exhausting all of his anger “You are putting your trust in someone you just met, who is wanted for murder by the CIA, by her own CO!”

“Danny, Relax, I don’t need to trust her, it’s a very simple, shallow dive, I’ve done this countless times before.”

“Again with the relax! I am most certainly not going to relax while you are going out of your way to ensure your lack of safety. I do not get it, why not let the CIA handle this?”

“You heard her, we don’t have time, and something is definitely fishy in the way CIA is handling this.”

“Why on earth do you even believe anything she says?”

Steve stopped his preparations suddenly, looking his partner in the eye, “Because I know where she is.” he said softly, “I’ve been there. A mission on foreign grounds, on an independant, western sovereignty soil, something goes wrong, they prefer to leave you to the wolves than create a diplomatic crisis. Her partner is killed, her country calls her a rogue agent and dumps all the responsibility over anything that went sideways on her. But she is still ready to finish her mission.”

Danny’s next words sounded desperate “or she could be playing you”

“That might be so.” He rested his hand on his friend’s shoulder “I have to trust my gut in this”

“Well then. I hope your gut would not be left to rot at the bottom of the ocean after you help her retrieve her bombs and she kills you.”

“That won’t happen.” Steve grinned “I have you to watch my six.”

 

They were ready to go. Steve estimated it would take about twenty minutes to blow-open the container, then they would be able to estimate what it will take to retrieve its content. 

Chin was ready with an extra gear, Danny and Kono were watching intently for any type of transport approaching.

 

It took Steve and Ya’el less than a minute to reach the container. The hard part was getting it open. He was pretty sure that the insides were flooded, otherwise the container would have been  floating, but if he was wrong, opening it would have to be done more carefully, as it will cause the water to flood in violently. So the first step was to drill two holes, one on the top of the container, one on its side. There was no air coming out. Indeed it was flooded.

They carefully placed directional charges on the door’s hinges, the amount of explosives needed for this was tiny, as the surrounding water would make the explosion much more violent. 

A low hum suddenly filled the water around them. Steve looked around, trying to figure out the source. Identifying the direction from which a sound came was impossible under water. 

He looked up, the remote shadow of the two boats floating above them was still there, no indication that either motor was running.   
The Hum was getting louder.

He looked at Ya’el. Just like him her eyes were darting around attentively. He could not tell if she was pleased or surprised. Grabbing her arm with one hand, and the remote  detonator  in the other, he pushed them both above the container as the hum grew even louder.

Several shadows were coming into view from the north. Five, no, six divers with black DPVs were coming right at them. The one in front pulled out a speargun and fired.  

Movement underwater was never fast. If you needed to be quick enough to dodge anything, you needed a solid object to bounce from. Currently Steve had none. 

He pushed Ya’el away, pushing himself at the process. It seemed she did exactly the same, but both of them moved very slowly.  

It was enough, though, the spear split the waters between them, missing both. The SEAL Allowed himself to sink, seeking the firm unmovable metal of the container, that will allow him to bolt out at any direction quickly. The divers were now on both sides, sweeping quickly past them and turning around. He spotted Ya’el, pushing forward, her target must have been the spear now laying a few feet from her on the bottom of the Ocean. Steve himself had no time to question the decision not to let her have even a knife, because three DPVs driven by very determined divers were now coming at him from different directions. 

He had little time to decide which was the bigger threat. 

The one holding the speargun was ready to shoot again, but he was in a direct line of fire to his comrade who was coming at Steve from the other side. The third one was closing the distance fast, both hands holding the DPV, and a knife was held between his teeth. 

Steve’s own knife was now in his hand, he waited till the last minute then kicked hard against the container roof, and launched himself out of the storming DPV’s way and directly at the one approaching from the other side. He was still very slow in comparison to the motored diver he launched at, who quickly moved below him. Steve managed to plunge his knife forcefully into the diver’s back, and tried to hang on to it as the other one moved up to him, releasing his DPV to launch forward like a torpedo without him .

It slammed into Steve from the side, forcing him to release both his knife still buried in his other opponent’s back and the  remote detonator  in his other hand. 

Then the spear caught him. Ripping skin, flesh and muscles as it tore its way mercilessly into his body. The cry of pain manifested in a large cloud of bubbles coming out of his regulator. He was sinking again, the large doors of the container now in front of him, as he was thrown back by the force of the spear impact.

He saw the four small bursts of fire around the doors, the low boom coming from all directions. The SEAL knew what would happen next, and ignoring the pain he tried to propel himself backwards, away from the doors. The water around him  blurred  for a moment, like hot air over asphalt, and the doors came down slowly, heavily, pinning him to the sandy bottom.

 

Through the bubbles engulfing him, coming, no doubt, from the damaged air tank still on his back, he could see the divers entering the container. They rummaged a bit, then seemed to find what they were looking for. A large, heavy crate with no markings on it. Helplessly, he watched as they wrapped it in a net and pulled it out.

He looked around, as best as he could for Ya’el. But only as they moved away he could see her unconscious body towed away by the DPV drivers, just like the crate.  


	4. Chapter 4

**"There are a lot of things on this planet I'm worried about. Losing you in a combat situation is not one of them." Danny Williams (s3e15, Hookman)**

Danny looked at Chin, feeling wonder, envy and a touch of annoyance at the man’s complete calmness. Chin stood on the deck, his eyes squinting against the bright light, their gaze sweeping the horizon methodically, lifting the binoculars to his eyes on occasion. 

Danny himself moved around the boat nervously, changing his point of view randomly and counting minutes.

12:13. 15 minutes after Steve and the too-confidant, manipulative, dangerous Mossad agent disappeared below the surface.

Kono just finished updating Grover and was now on the Coast Guard boat, using the com to reassure them that their vessel was safe and sound. 

Danny looked down at the water, subconsciously trying to pierce them with his look and see what the hell is going on down there. He couldn’t see deep enough but suddenly the thought of 65 feet of these heavy water above his head has woken his claustrophobia. He looked up. 

Something flickered in the horizon. 

Danny shaded his eyes with his hand, then lifted his binoculars to his eyes. Something was definitely out there.  It looked big, and he followed it for few seconds as it slowly cruised through the waters. It wasn’t moving directly at them, but rather at an angle. It was still getting closer.

“Hey, Chin,” the detective called. “What was the name on the note you found at Jaren’s?”

“Andrea, why?”

“Sonofabitch” Danny replied. The vessel was now at the exact angle to see the name painted across the hull:  _ ‘Andrea’s gale’ _

He lowered the binoculars and pointed in the direction of the ship. Chin, keeping his calm exterior, picked up his binoculars and looked.

“We need to warn Steve,” Chin said, “Tell Kono, I’m going down there”.

Chin was already in a wetsuit, so he simply strapped on a weight belt, put a mask on and jumped, disappearing into the water below the buoy marking the line leading down.

Kono leaned over the railing of the Coast Guard boat “What did I miss?”

Danny was following the the ship through the binoculars again, “The big scary bad guys’ ship.” 

“Oh.” Kono replied and followed his gaze.

Danny looked at his watch again. 

12:16. 18 minutes after Steve submerged himself in that god awful shark infested fish tank with that questionable woman. According to plan, they should already have the container open, and planning the recovery of its content. It was not clear how long before the bad guys’ ship would reach them. It seemed to stop its movement now, or maybe it changed its course and it was harder to estimate its movement. Maybe it was just a coincidence. 

He would feel better after they were all back in the boats and heading for dryland.

Chin re-surfaced, shaking his head once then shouting at them, as he swam quickly back to the boat “Danny! Steve is injured and trapped down there! I’ll get air, find something to use as a lever!”

For a split second, Danny just stood, feeling dizzy. Then he sprang into action. 

“How bad?” Kono asked, and Danny discovered he really did not want to hear Chin’s answer.

He was out of his vest, out of his shoes and maintaining just enough clear thought to take a weight and a mask before he plunged into the deep, strangling water threatening to crush in on him.

“It’s bad.” He heard Chin say before he let the weight pull him down, then helped it with quick violent motions of his legs, using one hand to pull himself down the rope.

It did look bad.

Both of Steve’s legs and his right hand and shoulder were caught under the heavy metal container door. What looked like a long metal pipe was protruding out of his lower abdomen, and the water around him were painted red. For some unknown reason the air regulator was out of his mouth. 

Steve stopped his struggling as Danny approached. He looked at Danny and then smiled through pain stricken eyes.

_ Yeah, you got me diving, you stupid, irresponsible, freaking moron.  _

The Claustrophobia induced panic was gone. Danny felt focused. He planted his feet in the sand, putting his hands below the doors plates and pulled. Steve was trying to help, arching his body and using his one free hand. 

The heavy door didn’t even budge. Steve was obviously in pain, the bubbles that came out of his mouth at a regular pace, were now released at sporadic intervals. 

Danny tried again. He became aware of his body starting to protest the deprivation of air. How long was he under water? It couldn’t have been more than one minute. The damn SEAL was still fighting, and he was out of breath for...how long?

Panic struck again at that thought. He suddenly felt Steve’s fingers lightly gripping his arm, so he turned his head to look at him.

 

Horrified, Danny could see the exact moment when his partner gave up. Steve's eyes remained open, his lips slightly apart, but the continuous string of bubbles coming out of his mouth, came to an abrupt halt. 

_ No. _

For a moment it seemed to Danny that the only movement was the horrific, dancing strands of red, twirling slowly in the water around him, like wisps of smoke rising lazily from Steve's abdomen, where the harpoon spear pierced his body.  

_ No. No. _

His own lungs were screaming at him to inhale, and for a second there, as he looked at his partner's now peaceful expression, Danny thought how easy it would be to surrender, as Steve did, to this demand, right here. To let the water fill his lungs, rather than abandon his brother.

 

It was Chin who woke Danny from the hypnotizing, calm look of his friend's lifeless eyes.

Chin moved quickly past him, holding the air regulator connected to the air tank on his back. He pushed it into Steve's mouth, pressed the demand button to clear the water and release the air. With his other hand he pushed Danny away, motioning him with a raised thumb to rush to the surface.

Danny complied immediately. He was not ready to give up, even though it seems that the SEAL did. They still needed to find some way to release Steve from the deadly grip of the ocean he loved, and it had to be now.

 

He broke the surface with a loud inhale, coughing and gasping. His eyesight that has already begun dimming quickly regaining focus. Kono was busy with something on the Coast Guard’s boat.

“K...ono,” he breathed, not quite successful at producing any audible sound. He let himself take another breath, the tried again “Kono, we need help...” she straightened, holding a large bag with a belt of weights dangling heavily from its  straps . Without a word she threw the bag overboard, the weights belt after it, and then jumped in the water herself diving after it.

Danny was working on his breathing, trying hard not to think about the amount of water still separating him from Steve. He needed to get down there again. 

So he did.

It was harder this time, he was scared and tired, and his friend was dead.

No. not dead yet.

Chin was busy with a knife, cutting the strips that were attaching Steve’s useless air tank to his buoyancy control jacket, Kono was pushing that bag she sank next to him, under the doors holding Steve down.

Steve was unnaturally passive. No movement, no bubbles, no damn goofy smile. 

Danny decided to let the anger take control, it was much better than suffocating in panic. Chin and Kono were looking at each other, nodding their heads, then Chin looked at him, pointing at the same position  Danny was holding before. 

This action required was clear to the detective. He dug his feet again against the sand.

Kono pulled a long rope out of the bag that was now firmly tucked next to Steve’s body, then took position behind him, sliding her hands underneath Steve’s armpits.

The bag started to inflate, and Danny finally understood the plan. The life raft, inflating rapidly under the heavy metal plate, eased the weight of the doors enough so Chin and himself could lift them slightly. 

Kono pulled, and Steve was out. All three were darting upwards to the surface, carrying their leader between them, kicking hard against the water, dumping the weights that helped them dive. 

The way to the surface seemed to last forever. 

Danny looked at his watch.

12:22. 24 minutes after Steve dived to his death with that treacherous, cold blooded murderous agent. 

_ No, Not death.  _

How long was it since Steve let the water fill his lungs? It felt like forever and seconds ago at the same time. 

Dizzy, exhausted, black spots blurring his vision, Danny used up the last of his strength to pull the SEAL’s very heavy body onto the deck. It was not over. 

His partner’s lips were blue, his wet skin pale. 

Kono was dashing to the Coast Guard boat, Chin was checking for a pulse. Danny knew he would not find it. 

“OK…” Danny mumbled. pulling himself together he started compressions. The straining, monotonous movements seemed to strengthen his resolve. He still had some strength left in him. Steve was not going to die.

“You hear me, you big ape?” he breathed, his voice hoarse “You do not get to die! From all the stupid, reckless, pointless ways in which you are trying to to kill yourself, this is the dopiest you could ever come up with! Not going to happen! now START BREATHING!”

The stubborn SEAL did not reply.

“Will you listen to me for once in your life?” Danny almost yelled “BREATHE!”

Steve’s body contorted, He started to cough, water spraying out of his mouth. Danny fell backwards, as Chin rolled Steve to the side. His body convulsed, more coughing, more water, and then a loud, pain filled groan. For a moment Steve looked at Danny, his eyes dark and glossy, and then they were shut, his body sagged.

Panic, Anger, Panic again, Hope and than Fear, Danny was at the end of his rope. But Chin’s steady voice called “We have a pulse. He is breathing.”

“We...We need…” Danny could not speak. 

Chin was already trying to slow the bleeding around the spear shaft coming out of Steve’s body, and Kono’s voice came from somewhere calling “Air evac 6 minutes away!”, and he was thankful for the thousandth time for Steve’s choice of teammates. He held onto Steve’s hand, and finally took the time to try and steady his own breathing. 

“You’re alright, Buddy” He told Steve and himself. “We’re Alright.”


	5. Chapter 5

**“You know what they say about coincidences?...They usually take a lot of planning.” Chin Ho Kelly (s1e15 Kaie’e)**

Next Thing he knew, Danny was required to fight the unreasonable urge to keep holding his partner’s hand as the evac team strapped him to the stretcher, and got ready to haul him up to the helicopter.  

There were also many questions, and he managed somehow to answer some of them.

Chin filled in the details he could not- Four maybe five minutes without oxygen; About twenty minutes at 65 feet before they pulled him to the surface. None of them knew how long that spear was wedged in him.

The Helicopter was gone, and so was Steve. Danny was left behind on that god damned boat, in the middle of the ocean, with a pool of his partner’s blood and a giant knot in his stomach.

“Come on, Danny.” Chin’s hand was on his back “Let’s get back. I’ll take this boat, you go with Kono on the other one, it’s faster.”

“Yeah…Yeah.” He looked up at the direction of the ship they saw. It was gone. He moved quickly to the Coast Guard boat, and as Kono launched it forward, he was at the com, calling for an APB and an  aerial  search for  _ Andrea’s Gale _ , last seen about 15 miles off the north shore heading North-East.

When they finally reached Queens Lou was already there. They have taken Steve to surgery in the hyperbaric chamber to treat both problems: decompression sickness caused by the quick ascend from the 65 meters dive, and the spear. It was not clear how long it would take, or how bad his condition was.

Fifty minutes into waiting, Danny was close to breaking down. His still damp pants, the smell of salt and blood that would not leave his nose, the sitting there doing nothing and not knowing if Steve was going to make it. He needed to do something. He needed to find that ship, needed to find that bitch, needed to understand what the hell happened down there.

So when the coast guard called that they had sighting of  _ Andrea’s Gale _ , he made the nurses swear that they will call the minute they had any news, threatened Kamekona to do the same, and took Lou and Kono to personally oversee the raid. Chin was already out at sea, overseeing the retrieval of the container content.

Flying over the water was not much better than cruising on the surface. Worse, actually. He sat in a flying death trap that could crash into the ocean any second. Danny found himself wishing it was McGarrett behind the controls, which made him laugh and earned him some disturbed looks from his teammates.

The Ship was nearly empty.

There was only one man on the main deck, but he had an automatic weapon and seemed willing to die rather than get caught. Common practice among fanatics. So he fired at the chopper, and they had to shoot him down, before getting on board. That, at least, ruled out the option that the ship’s name and location were a coincidence.

They cleared the ship, slowly, thoroughly. There were very few people on board, but all determined to die. They ended up with four bodies and one injured terrorist. The latter they found in the med Deck, and it was probably the deep stab wound to his back that did not enable him to carry a weapon and thus he was prevented from committing suicide by cop like his pals. They also found a beaten up but still alive Mossad Agent.

Danny had little patience for sympathy.

“Hey! Hey!” he shouted at the barely conscious woman, shaking her shoulders, before even bothering to release her from the chair she was tied to, “Ezra! What is going on here? What the hell happened at the container?”

“De...tect...?” She looked up at him through one good eye. Her pupil was dilated. Then she started throwing words. “need... they… crate... hospital…” her head dropped.

Danny breathed in frustration. He waited for the confirmation that all decks were clear and then called in the EMTs.

It was over. Or so he thought. That is, until no trace of any explosives was found on the ship, or in the underwater container. What they did find was a laptop, heavily encrypted, which was immediately sent to the lab.

Danny was sitting by his partner bedside. He was tired. He felt lost, angry, worried, puzzled... but mostly tired.

Steve was now in the ICU, the doctors said he was stable, that the surgery went well. The damage done by the vicious triple arrow spearhead was fixed. But there was very little comfort in this. The long period of hypoxia caused the doctors to take on very sad and sympathetic expressions, as they explained about the likelihood of permanent brain damage. It could be anything from headaches and mood swings through some physical disability, right up to complete craziness. It was not the medical term the doctors used, but clearly what they meant. And they were not able to say how bad it might be until Steve bothered waking up. And the damn SEAL did not seem inclined to do so.

So Danny sat, and watched the pale, expressionless face on the pillow, frowned at the massive array of wires and machines, and used the time to prepare his righteous speech for the moment it did happen.

His phone suddenly rang.

The ICU nurse jerked her head up and gave him a steely stare.

“I’m sorry, I thought it was turned off...I…” He pulled it out and discovered he did turn it off. It was Steve’s phone that was ringing.

Danny walked out of the ICU, focused mostly on the name displayed on screen and very little on where he was walking.

He tapped the phone, accepting the call, but remained silent.

“Commander McGarrett?” came the demand over the speaker.

“No, Zehavi,” Danny felt a sudden rage. “Commander McGarrett is not available right now, as you most certainly already know.”

A second’s pause. “I am truly sorry, Detective. I did warn you not to try and handle it yourselves.”

“No,” Danny said sharply “No, you did not. You didn’t want us to handle  _ your agent _ ourselves; you never talked about handling _ it _ , because you never mentioned there  _ was _ an IT!”

“I understand you are upset, Detective Williams. And I know how you feel. One of my people is dead, and the other is in the hospital too. But we still have a job to do…”

_ “You _ have a job to do.” Danny’s voice was cold, but he couldn't hold back the occasional tremor.  “This is  _ your  _ mess, and  _ you _ need to clean it up. And we are done with you...you... secret-service-I’ll-send-you-out-with-no-information-to-kill-yourself people...” At that point, he was surprised to discover he really meant it. He was so tired of this.

“Detective! Please!” The voice on the other side sounded desperate. “Please hear me out. There are lives at stake here, and we are all trying to do our jobs. Hear me out, and then you can decide if you’ll help.”

Danny really wanted to hang up. Throw away the phone. Smash it against the wall and go back to convince his uncooperative partner to open his eyes. His stupid, stupid partner, who would not stop at anything if he thought he could save a single lousy kitten on ‘his island’.

“Fine. Alright. I’m listening.”

“Not on the phone…”

“Of course not” he exasperated, rolled his eyes, waving his free hand.

“I can be in your HQ is five minutes.”

It took more than five minutes to call Kamekona, wait for him to arrive, convince him to leave the takeaway bag of Shrimp casserole at the door of the ICU so they will allow him to enter, and drive to HQ. When he finally arrived, everybody else was already there. Zehavi was sitting in the common area on a not-so-comfortable chair- Danny would swear they got it from the blue room- while all three other five-0 members were standing over him.

“Alright,” Danny opened immediately “what do you have to say?”

Zehavi cleared his throat, “May we speak in your office?”

“No. Go on. I don’t have much time.” _ lest my partner decided to wake up when I’m not there. _

“OK, what do you….”

“No, no,” Danny emphasized the negativity with his head and a raised index finger, “You do not throw WH questions at us now. You talk, we listen, then  _ we _ ask questions if we have them.”

Zehavi sighed. “Fine. You are aware that neither explosives, nor other suspicious materials were found in the container? I mean, container.” he immediately corrected the audible question mark at the end of his sentence and continued without waiting for response. “I think whatever was in there was taken by the same guys who put both our people in the hospital.”

“Wow, that...is...wow, what is the word for that?” Danny wondered loudly

“Insightful?” Kono suggested

“Genius?” offered Lou

“A waste of our time.” determined Chin

Danny just pursed his lips, lifting his eyebrows and gestured with his hand towards his teammates.

“Just checking that we are all the same page here.” Zehavi didn’t sound apologetic. “They have the explosives, but they do not have the man who could build the bomb itself. However, what we found on that laptop you brought back from the ship…”

“What _you_ found?” Kono barked

“Yes, you might have made a mistake there, sending it to the lab. CIA is monitoring anything that gets there these days. They are not relying on your cooperation.”

“Yet you are here.” Chin commented

“I am not CIA.” no one spoke and Zehavi continued “as I was saying; we found out that the laptop was scheduled to upload a broadcast at noon tomorrow. The content of this broadcast makes it very clear that it was recorded after they already knew that Jeran is dead.”

“We never published Jaren’s death” Grover interrupted.

“Correct. Therefore my first conclusion was that we have a leak. Ezra has suspected it for a while.”

“She said she didn’t trust  _ you _ .” Danny suddenly blurted.

“Well, Sadly I didn’t trust her either. It is not so anymore, and I hope she will come to see that she can trust me too.” he said, devoid of emotion.

“Well, we still don’t trust her.” Danny stated.  _ She is the reason Steve isn’t here. _ “Or you.”  

“Understandable.” Zehavi answered, in the same businesslike tone. “Our second conclusion is that whatever they are planning now, it doesn’t require Jaren. It might be that they found another specialist, but this is very unlikely. Possibly they settled for ‘Bomb Building for Dummies’ downloaded from the internet. It could also be something else entirely.”

“Something planned hastily isn’t any less dangerous.” Lou observed

“But might be much sloppier.” Chin added

“Hence the ship we located, the laptop we got, the man left behind.” Zehavi confirmed.

“That is all very interesting, Mr. Zehavi” Danny spitted the name half disgusted “but you haven’t even told us what the original, carefully planned plot was, and who the hell these guys are?”

“I didn’t.” Zehavi agreed. He shifted in his chair uncomfortably, and Danny felt a quick, nasty wave of satisfaction at that. He hated that guy right now. He didn’t much care if the feeling was rational or not. “We were tracking Jaren’s movements for a long while, as I told your Commander. When we learned he was coming to the US, specifically to Hawaii, we alerted the CIA. Their reaction was to bring me here as a specialist. Apparently they were aware of some kind of activity of TIB, a radical Muslim organization, here in Hawaii. This is pretty much it. My own people’s presence has been...off the books. Since the CIA had an eye on me, I had little to no contact with them. Apparently they tracked down Jaren. I don’t know what happened, whether they intended to confront him or not, and I don’t know who the hell killed Goldman.”

“Why don’t you ask her now?”

“Ya’el is still unconscious in the hospital and under CIA supervision. She also doesn’t trust me. She might talk to you, but I doubt whoever is responsible for the leak will let you near her.”

“What about the terrorist we have in custody?”

Danny already had some time with him. A very short and futile time. Getting information from a Zealot was nearly impossible. He was sure Steve would know how to do it. Danny himself just let the rage take over; he threatened, yelled and dug his fingers into the man’s wound until he lost consciousness. It made Danny sick, and gained nothing.

“The CIA is working on it, and I do have ears on this. But it will take too long to get something from him. We don’t have much time. The broadcast was set for tomorrow at noon. And from what I have seen, none of the terrorists involved means to stay alive.”


	6. Chapter 6

**“Uh, I'm sorry, was I supposed to say something back to you?” Steve McGarrett  (s3e21 Imi Loko Ka ʻUhane)**

 

The painfully close deadline should have been enough for Danny to stay goal oriented. It wasn’t. He was anxious to get to the hospital. Kono and Chin were busy going over all scheduled public events for tomorrow morning, trying to figure out what would make a good target. Lou and Zehavi followed some possible locations the Five-0 team marked earlier as possible bases of operation for Ezra. Zehavi was able to narrow them down a bit. Hopefully they might find some more information about what she and her partner have discovered.

So around midnight, Danny decided the team can handle some time without him and drove off to see Steve. He rationalized that he didn't abandoned them, that maybe while he was there, he would be able to sneak in Ya’el’s room and talk to her.

Flippa was there now, sitting outside the ICU. Danny went straight in, to find his partner in the  same condition, the only indication of him being alive was the constant beeps from the surrounding machines.

Danny breathed loudly, scratched the back of his neck and shook his head.

“I really, really hate you right now.” he whispered intently to the sleeping man, leaning close to his ear. “You could have just backed off, let the damned CIA handle this, instead of getting us all into this then conveniently take yourself out of the picture.”

“No back’ff butt’n”

Danny felt his heart skip a beat. “Steve?” His eyes were still shut, but he moaned softly and moved his head to the side. Then his hand went up few inches before it dropped back.

“Nurse? Hey, I think he is waking up.” Danny called urgently, looking back.

The nurse came rushing up to them, shoved herself between Danny and the bed and started checking. But Steve was back in his do-not-disturb deep sleep mode, nothing to indicate what Danny just witnessed.

“He spoke. And moved his head and hand” Danny volunteered hastily without being asked, trying to convince the nurse and himself that he didn't imagine it.

She just said “I’ll get the doctor” and went away.

Danny stared at his annoyingly lifeless-again friend, feeling the touch of hope receding into the familiar anger and frustration. “Come on, buddy. You need to be OK.”

They made Danny wait outside while the doctor checked Steve. He was facing the ICU door, Looking through the square glass window, trying to make sense of the movements around Steve’s bed. He couldn’t see much. So he opened the door slightly. Now he was trying to make sense of the sounds he was hearing, with pretty much the same success.

Danny gave up and looked around. He now noticed a man in a suit blocking a door few feet away. The man was eyeing him suspiciously.

Danny smiled. He was still facing the door to the ICU, his hands in his pockets. “Hi.”

The man didn’t answer. Danny pointed one finger at the man. “CIA I presume?” still no response but the cold gaze. “Detective Danny Williams, Five-0”, he tapped with his finger on the badge attached to his belt.

Aha. That elicited a response. The man’s stare wavered for a second, and as Danny turned to face him he said “Agent Franklin. Please stay back Detective. I'm under strict orders not to let anyone in.”

Well. Danny now knew who was behind door number two. 

“Anyone? Or just five-0?”

The man’s brow wrinkled for a second, he seem to consider his response. Danny took a step forward and decided to fill the silence “What is it, were you also ordered not to talk? It’s an easy enough question. Who  _ is _ allowed to go in there?”

Franklin frowned  “Stay back Detective.” his hands swept causally, moving to his waist while opening the sides of his jacket, so the holstered gun was slightly exposed. Danny wondered how many times he had to practice this move, and how pleased the CIA agent was with himself for the spectacular success. ”As I said,” Franklin finally answered “I have been told not to let anyone in”

Danny raised his hands in submission. “OK, that wasn’t very hard was it? Now, can you tell me who gave this order?”

“My superior.”

“Hey, no need to get so hostile. I just want to know who I should talk to, because obviously, you have no authority here, no further than a door knob anyway. A very good, smart knob, That is!” Danny added immediately as the large agent’s body language became a bit aggressive.

The door to the ICU opened behind him, and Danny lost all interest in the CIA Agent. 

The Doctor was out, tired smile on his face. He motioned Danny to step in and asked him about what he saw, and then confirmed that indeed it looked like Steve was waking up, and the fact that he said something coherent was a good sign, but it was still too soon to determine anything.

So Danny remained by Steve’s side for the rest of the night, filling the sleeping man on the case details, asking him questions, answering for him, then arguing with him. A few times that night it looked like Steve was waking up. A mumble, a slow movement or a groan of pain.

Morning came. Right after Steve bothered to open his eyes for a split second, leaving the exhausted Danny frustrated once more at the lack of any progress; The Detective could not help himself and yelled at his partner that it was time to wake up. In return, the empathic but stern nurse told him that it was time for him to leave. Shower. Get some sleep. Stop yelling at her patient. He wasn't sure he could do any of these things, but she pushed him out and he had no choice but to wait outside the ICU, under the watchful eye of still standing agent Franklin.

He fell asleep on one of the chairs and woke up startled to his phone ringing. It was 8 am. Kono on the line. They finally had a lead.

They were able to trace the steps of one of the dead terrorists from the boat after picking his face on airport surveillance cameras, and during the night found the car he rented. In the car they found a note with a name and number that traced back to a travel agency. They were on their way there now.

Danny peered inside the ICU. It looked like the grumpy nurse was not there anymore, so he braved an attempt to go inside. The new nurse raised her eyes to look at him, then shook her head. It seems she was briefed about him.

“I’m going,” he said as calmly and quietly as he could “I just wanted to see how he was doing before I leave.”

“OK. But be quiet.”

Danny approached the bed, looked at his sleeping partner for few second then put his hand gently on his arm. “I need to go, buddy. Kamekona will be here shortly, and I’ll get back as soon as I can. Feel free to wake up at any time.”

Steve’s eyes flew open suddenly, and he looked directly at Danny. The slight motion was so sudden that Danny was taken aback.

“I’m fine, Danny, It’s nothing.” Steve said. His voice was hoarse and his eyes not quite focused. He smiled reassuringly to the space between them, then closed his eyes again, taking a deep breath like he was just about to take a nap. 

“Steve! Steve! Come on, stay awake, don’t you dare making me look dumb again!” He was shouting again, and the nurse came rushing with an angry expression on her face. But Steve was blinking slowly, his gaze moving around.

“Commander?” the nurse leaned closer to his face, touching his shoulder lightly, “Are you with us?”

Danny could see he was making an effort to focus on the nurse, and needed to remind himself to breath normally. Steve released a non committal grunt, then his face contorted slightly, and he raised one hand to his head. It was obvious that he was in pain, but Danny could not help his smile. 

The doctor came, and Danny was ordered to wait outside again, but it was even harder for him to leave. He longed to hear Steve’s voice again. So he stayed just besides the door, keeping quiet, and was rewarded with a few, softly spoken unintelligible sentences coming from his friend’s mouth.

The smile on the Doctor’s face when he came to talk to him, was much more confidant. 

“Commander McGarrett is sleeping now. We gave him something for the pain, but the results were much more encouraging. We still cannot determine the level of damage, and we will have to do more tests when he wakes up again, but he is currently sleeping, as opposed to being unconscious. That is a very good sign.” The Doctor put his hand on Danny’s shoulder, “Detective Williams, the nurses told me you are here since midnight. The Commander will be sleeping for at least several hours, and once he is awake we will take him for further examination. Why won’t you go home, freshen up for a bit, sleep a few hours and then come back. I assure you, we will keep an eye on him.”    

Sleeping was not on Danny’s agenda, not until he got the guys who did this to Steve and plan to bomb the island. But he did feel more inclined to take an active role in actually getting these guys. So he called to update the team on Steve’s improved condition and asked about their advancement. As soon as Kamekona showed up he left for HQ.

Kono and Lou have just finished with the travel agency, it didn't take long before the employee answering to the name they found on the note, confessed to selling information about planned guided tours to the island, and identified one of the guys from the ship.

Chin and Zehavi were also successful, after a night of waking up almost every homeowner within a five miles radius, someone recognized Ya’el and took them to her small rented room. They now knew how she found the container and evidence to what was in it, in the form of well designed car bomb plans. They could also come to the conclusion about the target; several pictures from different angles of a building Zehavi recognized as the Israeli consulate. 

It was most likely that this plan was no longer executable, but Zehavi did make some calls to increase the alert level. Danny noticed that Agent Coldwell was not one of the calls.

As they went through the information the terrorist received from the travel agency, something caught Zehavi’s attention. He was adamant that one of the tours that were booked was the target. Specifically one booked by a group of low ranked state officials from Israel. 

They immediately started working on contacting them and HPD were on their way to Puowaina Crater, where the group was scheduled to visit that morning. 

Once contact was made, Five-0 ordered the group to stay put, and not to enter their bus, until they arrived. The bus was checked for explosives and cleared, so Danny ordered to take everyone to a different hotel until they had more information. The rest of the tour was postponed until further notice. 

The bus started driving out of the site, escorted by HPD and Five-0, when automatic gunfire started raining on them from the hill over Puowaina Drive. Danny could see the windows shattering along the left side of the bus in front of him, and the police cruiser covering the bus from the left started to sway. He ordered the officer on the bus to 'step on it' and keep moving forward no matter what, as he steered the Camaro sharply to the left, stopping it inches from the hillside. Lou and his truck followed. He got out from the passenger side, took cover behind the car and motioned Lou and Kono to double back and start moving uphill on foot, while Chin and himself provided cover fire.

It was not hard to locate the origin of the fire; the terrorists put a lot of effort into shooting the bus that was moving fast out of their reach, ignoring completely the Five-0 members targeting them. But they were uphill, well covered by bushes, and Danny had little to do but fire blindly at their general direction and hope they would not see Kono and Lou coming.

And then, for the second time in the last 24 hours, Danny thought it was over. 

He heard Kono yell “Stay down you piece of shit!” then Lou reported over the com “We have two shooters”.

“Two?” Danny asked puzzled.

“Yeah. Two.”

“OK. Have HPD Canvas the area.” He grabbed the com from his car “Officer Hale?” he addressed the officer in the Bus “What is your status?”

“Still driving detective Williams. We have a few wounded here.”

“OK, Keep moving” he thought for a second “go straight to Queens and alert them you are coming.” the hospital was a few minutes drive from their location. With a police escort it would be faster just getting there than waiting for an ambulance in a non-secured area.

As cops begun swarming the hillside, Lou and Kono came back. Kono was holding a short man in front of her, his hands tied behind his back and his face was decorated with what looked like fresh bruises.

“The other one is dead” She explained. 

“Help me out here guys.” Lou said as he stood in front of Danny and Chin.  “We have a well-financed terrorist organization, who came to Hawaii to do some harm. They have a large amount of explosives and more than few men willing to die for the cause. Even though their original plan went down in flames, do you think it is logical they settled for two men with rifles shooting at a tourist's bus?”

“No.” Danny answered needlessly.

It was definitely not over.


	7. Chapter 7

**“Some guys, they’re just born without a fear gene” Chin Ho Kelly (s1e16 E Malama)**

  
  


A single burst of automatic weapon. Steve heard that through his hazy brain, or maybe it was just a dream, he wasn’t sure. There was commotion around him, shouting, orders. Was he in deployment?

He opened his eyes, blurry shaped were moving in front of him, adding a vision of commotion to the sound. Steve couldn’t make any sense of it, so he just allowed the heavy fog in his brain to engulf him and drifted back to sleep.

He woke up with a jolt, sending stabs of pain through his stomach, then his head decided to join in, and he couldn’t help but groan. It was like someone firing automatic weapons inside his head. He pressed both hands against his ears, holding his eyes shut, and forced himself to breath slowly. 

Everything quieted down. 

Too quiet.

It was not that the hospital was a noisy place, most of the time the dominating sound was the low beeps of the various machines, but usually it came with the soft buzz of people conversing, and quick footsteps hurrying back and forth. But now it was only the machines and his own heavy breathing.

And gunshots. His eyes flew open. It was definitely gunshots, and it was not in his head. A short burst from somewhere in the vicinity. 

The ward was completely empty. Except for another man lying in a bed next to his. No nurse was at the station, no doctor moving around. No familiar face to greet him as he woke.

Something was wrong.

He rose slowly, willing his head to stop pounding so forcefully, letting the dizziness subside before moving his legs off the bed and sitting up. 

Another burst of gunshots, distant shouting, he could not make out the words.

He quickly removed his restraints- the oxygen cannula from his nose, then the IV line from the crook of his arm, and a whole bunch of other tubes and wires he didn’t want to think about. He needed to move.

He was sure he made a move to stand up, so it greatly surprised him to find himself looking under the bed, the cold floor hard under his torso and left cheek. But the cold seem to ease the incredible pain in his abdomen, so he just stayed there for a while, before trying that challenging mission of getting his body to a vertical position.

Then he was trying to get up again, one hand clutching his stomach, the other used to push himself up, then stabilize himself against the wall as he moved towards the door. Carefully he looked out the glass window to the corridor. 

Empty.

No, not empty. Across the corridor, to the left, was a human body sprawled on the floor. He could only see the pants suited legs. That was enough for him, the adrenalin shot through his body like a stimulant drug, the pain became nothing more than a minor nuisance. He looked around the room, moving his head slowly, not to stir the dizziness again. Looking down was a problem, so he tried his best to look straight ahead as he disassembled one of the IV poles. 

He walked back to the door holding the metal bar in his right hand. Again he needed the left to stabilize himself against the tilting room.

The corridor was still empty. He opened the door gradually, looking up and down and then making his way slowly, his back against the wall, approaching the body on the floor. The man was lying in the doorway, blocking the door from closing. He wore a suit, his white shirt soaked with blood, a gun holster exposed underneath his open jacket, but it was empty. Steve allowed himself a quick glance through the door, and the swift movement was more than he could handle. He barely stifled a groan, his head felt like it was being held between viciously contracting clamps, his vision dimmed and his legs threatened to buckle beneath him. He let himself sag against the wall, not quit sitting down- he wasn’t sure he would be able to get up if he did, but allowing the solid bricks to hold some of his weight. 

Slow, paced, deep breaths.

Also a mistake as his abdomen joined the party.

Slow, paced,  _ shallow _ breaths.

A faint sound from inside the room caught his attention, and he welcomed the distraction, focusing on it, instead of the pain. 

The sound came from the left, so he took the bar in his left and tightened his grip. A few seconds to clear his vision and he stepped in, his muscles tense. He turned, swinging the metal bar forcefully, slamming the hand holding the gun aimed at him against the wall, then up against the person’s jaw, registering the distance between him and the dropped gun. 

Then he stopped, crouching halfway to get the gun, his left hand stretched before him still.

“Ezra,” he said, his voice hoarse, barely audible. 

“Commander. You look like shit.” replied the woman, holding her right wrist with her left hand, thin trickle of blood coming out of her mouth. She was wearing a hospital gown, matching his own, the left side of her face purple and puffed, a bandage wrapped around her left arm.

He cleared his throat. “You don’t look so well yourself.” he continued his slow descent, not taking his eyes off her, mostly because he had no doubt that looking down would mean full face contact with the floor. He got the gun, but had to give up the metal bar. “What is going on?”

“I am not sure,” she said quietly. “I was… asleep. I heard a gunshot, woke up and saw one of my loyal guards dead on the floor. Then there were some bursts from automatic weapons.”

“Yeah. I heard that too.” He took a step towards the man on the floor, keeping his head straight, his fingers searching for a pulse in the neck. There was none. “And where is everybody?”

“Commander, I think they went ahead with their plan. The consul. They waited for him in the hospital.”

“What?” he recognized that another attack on his head was beginning. He had little patience for riddles, long clarifications or any kind of noise coming out of human vocal cords. Any kind of noise. So he moved out of the room before she had a chance to answer, and without much care made his way back to the nurses’ station. First thing’s first. He needed to clear his mind of this pain, without fogging it. He was dimly aware of the Israeli agent following him. Thankfully, she was quiet.

He had to stop a few times during the long fifteen feet walk, leaning heavily against the wall. But he finally made it. Rummaging through the nurses’ station he finally found what he was looking for. He took a small bottle with a clear fluid and then used a syringe. Afterwards, he sat down on the nurse's chair and fought back the nausea.

“OK.” he told the Israeli agent who was now sitting on another chair. She was closely eyeing him, and the gun now placed on the counter beside him. He saw the look and took it back in his hand, laying it in his lap. “Talk.”

“I really think you should not be moving around, Commander.”

“You’re probably right,” He admitted “But I still kicked your ass. Now what’s going on?”

She smiled faintly, “I picked up some chatter when I was held captive on the ship. The original plan was an attack on the Israeli consulate with a car bomb Jaren would build for them. They lost  Jaren so the new plan involved attacking an Israeli tourists bus, then assassinate the consul when he came to visit the hospital.”

“This doesn’t explain where everybody went.” The painkiller started to take effect, Steve got up, picked up the receiver of the phone on the desk. It was dead. He started opening drawers again, hoping to find a cellular phone. 

“I got one.” Ya’el held up her hand holding a phone “courtesy of the dead agent at my door.”

Steve snatched it, then grunted in pain. He should really stop with the sudden movements. No amount of painkillers could help that pain.

He thought for a second but couldn’t clear his mind enough to remember the number. After all most of the times he just needed to tap the name. He called 9-1-1.

“This is Commander Steve Mcgarrett, Five-0. Patch me through to Detective Williams ASAP”

He didn’t need to wait long before Danny’s voice was heard over the line

“Detective Williams”

“Hey Partner, where are you?”

There was silence for a second and then: “What the hell, STEVE? What are you doing?! ”

“I’m calling you, something is going on in the hospital”

“Wha-what, are you up? I mean... what?!”

“Yeah, listen, we are on the…” he looked around trying to find some clue as to where exactly they are, and saw Ya’el mouthing  _ West Wing Second Floor  _ “West Wing Second floor, there is a dead CIA agent and no one else around”

“Are you out of bed?!” Danny seemed insistent on focusing on the wrong thing, and Steve was getting impatient.

“Danny, Focus, You are not listening to me. Something. Is. wrong. Here. It might be the terrorists. Is the Israeli Consul scheduled...?” The long, fast, sentences took their toll, Steve was suddenly out of breath, and forced to stop talking while stifling a few coughs. Pain shot through his head and abdomen again. He removed the phone from his ear, Danny’s loud voice could be heard all the same.

“Steve? Steve! are you OK?”

“Yeah...fine...Danny...You should... Come...here”

“We  _ are  _ here, Steve.” Danny’s voice is softer now. “Look, are you safe where you are? We got this, buddy, don’t worry, stand down, hide, play dead, keep the bad guys off your back. We got this.”

Steve gained some control over his breath. Short sentences from now on. Shallow controlled breaths, No sudden movements and short sentences. “What’s the situation?” 

He could hear Danny sigh “We figured out their plan. They attacked a tourist bus, low rank officials from Israel. They were waiting in the hospital for the consul to come visit. We prevented the visit in time, but someone tipped them off that we were coming. It developed to a hostage situation. They barricaded themselves on the second floor. They want the consul.”

“SWAT?”

“They are ready, but we can’t go in blind. Steve, hold on tight, we are working on this. Just… hold on. We’ll get you.”

“OK. West Wing clear. I’ll try to get eyes on targets.”

“What? No, Steve, please, please don’t do anything stupid…”

Steve disconnected. 

“So,” the woman in front of him said “What’s the plan?”

 

The Navy SEAL and Israeli Mossad agent made their way slowly along the corridor leading to the door out of the Second Floor West Wing. They moved backs to the walls, on each side, both trying very hard to hide the need to support themselves against it. Steve was holding the gun, Ya’el had the metal bar on one hand and a syringe full of drug in the other.

They reached the doors, and Steve braved a pick through the glass window. All he needed was a split second to take in the scene. Two men. One was facing the elevator doors, rifle in hand. The other guarding the doors to the East Wing. The staircase entrance was rigged with a small explosive device.

He motioned to Ezra, and both retreated back to the wing. 

“We need to clear the lobby.” Short sentences. Breathe. “Hostages probably in the East Wing.” stop. Think. Breathe. “Think you can handle one guard at a time?”

He laid out his plan to her, which earned him an appreciative smile. Or maybe it was a pity smile, since she added “You are crazy.”

He dialed again.

“Steve!”

“Danny, we are going to clear the lobby…”

“No, NO Steve, the only thing you are going to do is go back to your damn bed, or better yet crawl under… wait, who is  _ we _ ?” 

“Ezra.”

“Oh! That is just wonderful!”

“Listen, Have SWAT ready at the second floor staircase. Do not come in until Ezra opens the door for you, it’s rigged.” 

“Steve…”

Steve didn’t have enough breath to argue, so he just continued, talking slow “I’m gonna get in with the hostages, I’ll leave the phone on so keep listening.”

“GOOD GOD STEVE NO! You are going to get yourself killed!”

“Danny, Relax, I’ve done this before”

“What, exposed yourself in front of crazed terrorists with guns while being half dead from drowning…”

“Don’t be stupid, Danny. I’m a SEAL. We don’t drown. Just get SWAT ready.” Danny’s exclamations got a bit muffled after Steve shoved the phone under the bandages around his abdomen. He needed few minutes to get the pain under control afterwards. The gun, he gave back to Ya’el. It was harder to hide and he didn’t want to take the risk they would find it.

“Danny, If you can hear me, shout something.”

“YOU MORON!”

“Good. Now stay quiet. I’m going in.”

 

Steve waited until Ya’el hid herself, then he lowered himself to the floor in the corridor, and pulled the IV stand that he connected to his arm again, on to the floor, making a racket. As predicted, shortly after, one of the terrorists came through the door pointing his gun. Steve was doing his best to look sick and disoriented. Which was very convincing since he was just that. 

“Don’t move!” came the command from above him

“Wha...Where’s...nurse?”

He was hauled up forcefully, so he didn’t have to fake the pain or the lack of balance. The IV was pulled out of his arm violently, and he was half dragged, half pushed through the rest of the corridor and the large doors. When he got through the doors of the east wing he started to doubt his plan. He felt he was about to lose his battle to stay conscious. He held onto the thought that beside his weakness, all was going as planned. Ya’el just had to take care of one bad guy in the Lobby, then wait for the other to come back out. He hoped she fared better than him.

“What’s this?” came another voice from in front of him. Steve made an effort to look up and focus on the scene. His eyes met Kamekona’s. Thankfully, the big guy showed no signs of recognition, but he did seem suddenly pleased.

“One of the dead guys from the other ward came back to life.” the man holding him answered

“Fine. put him with the others and go back out.”

He was thrown mercilessly to the floor in the common dining area. A very real cry of pain escaped his mouth. He was flat on his stomach now, and he could fill a warm wetness on his hand, the one he used to protect his injured abdomen. He must be bleeding again. The darkness was now imminent, and he fought it with all he had. He had a job to do. 

“Four at dining area. Two back, two front” He whispered, masking his words with moans of pain, not changing his position “about twenty seven hostages down on floor.” Breath in. Breath out. “Two inside corridor. Direct line of sight through the door. One in nurses’ station.”

He hoped with all his might that Danny heard him. He was now tempted to let himself slide, to surrender to the pain, let his teammates finish this. But he needed to do one more thing. And this required of him to gather himself and at least sit up. One of the four terrorists guarding the hostages was completely hidden from the doors. If he decided to aim at the hostages instead of helping his fanatic friends when all hell breaks loose, he will be able to do much damage.

So Steve swallowed the nausea, took another slow breath and pulled his legs beneath him. He knew he didn’t have much time, and he needed to close the short distance to the man. With one hand still clutching his bleeding wound, he used the other to pull himself across the floor, aiming to the rear wall. 

“Let me help you sit up” He heard someone whisper next to his ear. A strong hand was wrapped around his back and he leaned into the support, thankful for the opportunity to conserve some of his strength.

“Hey, you there!” came a shout from above him “Don’t move!”

“He is bleeding,” came the brave voice of his anonymous assistant. Steve looked up and saw the woman. She was wearing a nurse's uniform and looked at the armed terrorist with unwavering determination.  “I am just helping him lean against the wall.”

The Navy SEAL forced his mind to clear, push down the pain, compartmentalize it, it was too debilitating now, and he didn’t want anyone taking a risk to help him. He propped against the wall, just two steps from his target, leaned against his hand and got ready to engage.

Before the terrorist had a chance to answer or make a move, The doors slammed open, and the shooting began. 

Steve didn’t wait, and didn’t bother to take the time to straighten up. From his low position, he launched himself onto his target, hitting him above the knees and throwing both of them against the wall behind, unable to stop the momentum. There was a cry of pain, maybe it was his own, it drowned among the noises around him-  scared cries, short bursts of fire of the SWAT team and panicked automatic fire of the terrorists. 

His guy was gaining his balance back, he pushed Steve back and held his rifle in both hands, ready to fire. Steve took hold of the weapon, pushing the barrel to the side then rotating it fast, causing the man’s hands to cross and his grip on the weapon to loosen. With full force he ended the motion and pushed the rifle straight into the terrorist face, the back of the guy’s head hitting the wall hard, blood spouting from his nose and mouth as he slided down the wall, leaving the rifle in the SEAL’s hands. 

The gunfire stopped. 

 

Steve heard the rush of blood through his veins, the loud noise overcoming the commotion around him. He leaned one shoulder against the wall, the rifle heavy in his slumped arms. Someone was calling his name from far away, behind him. He turned, his back now against the wall. He wanted to call back but he had no voice.

While he sank to the floor, he could suddenly feel a tight grip on his arm, helping to control his descent, slow, away from the terrorist’s body.

“Danny.” He whispered to the man beside him.

“Yeah babe, I’m here. take it easy. It’s over.”

“I think I need a Doctor.”

“You think?” Danny chuckled softly “I am glad to see at least a part of your brain is working properly. Stay here buddy. Don’t move. I’m gonna grab one of these Doctors whose life you just saved. Then I’m gonna cuff you to one of these hospital beds, so help me god. Do not move.”

Steve had no strength to move, but he was fine with it. His job was done.


	8. Epilogue

**"Adventure? no, I work with this guy, I don't need anymore adventure" Danny Williams (S5e23 Mo'o 'olelo Pu)**

 

“This is not good for you.” Danny stated half to himself, half to the man in the hospital bed beside him. The door to Steve’s room was closing behind the last of the visitors, leaving only Danny and Steve behind.

“What?” Steve inquired. Danny thought he looked well. The color returned to his face, and he seemed lively and alert.

“All this attention. You were absolutely irresponsible and stupid, and all this...” Danny’s hand waved towards the close door “hero worship, it’s just enabling.”

“Seriously, Danny?” Steve glared

“Yeah seriously, you are  an accident waiting to happen …” he thought for a second “then happen again, and again, and all this attention, it’s like… cutting your brake line.”

Steve rolled his eyes “It’s OK Danny, I am sure you will do your best to hold me back and constantly remind me how much danger I am to myself and my surrounding.”

“So you  _ are  _ listening!” Danny exclaimed “and then you choose to ignore me” He continued sadly.

“Well, it’s like a fly” Steve retorted “constantly buzzing in your ear, you can’t  _ not _ hear it, but if you wish to keep your sanity, you have to ignore it.”

“Well good news! You  _ do _ have a sanity to keep! Where have you been hiding it all this time?!”

“Oh, real nice, Danny” Steve’s eyes were drawn to a spot behind Danny’s back, and Danny turned around quickly to see what caught his eyes. He jumped involuntary as a woman with a brown ponytail towered behind him.

“You freaking Ninjas” he muttered.

“Ezra,” Steve greeted her with a smile, 

“Commander.” She smiled back. Danny registered it was a nice smile. It annoyed him for some reason. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

“Not at all. Nothing can interrupt him,” Steve motion with his chin towards his partner “maybe just hold him off for few seconds, it just gives him time to breath between rants.”

“Oh, real nice, Steve”

Ya’el’s left eyebrow raised in amusement, the smile still lingered on her face. “How long have you…”

“Been married?” Danny completed with a complementary eye roll.

Her laugh was gentle, unsure of the joke maybe, “I was going to say ‘working together’, but fine…”

“Any progress with the leak investigation?” Steve changed the subject, Danny wondered if it was for the sake of her embarrassment or his own.

“They shut us out completely, so I would guess- no. But it seems that someone there was finally willing to believe the leak was indeed in the CIA, so you might consider that as progress.”

Danny snorted. Then he caught something, a look between the two, that made him wonder if they were actually talking when he didn’t look.

“I am sorry about your partner.” Steve suddenly said quietly “I promise that when I’m out of here I’ll use up all my contacts to find who did this.”

“Thank you, Commander” she replied with a sad smile “I would say you have done enough...”

“That he did!” Danny couldn’t help it.

“...But I know it wouldn’t matter” she continued now looking at Danny, still smiling.

“And you’d be right again.” Danny sighed

“Anyway,” she looked back at Steve, “I was just stopping by to say goodbye. I was given the choice to stay here and be arrested for espionage or leave the states never to come back. Officially anyway.” She smiled.

“I can’t say you made the wrong choice.” Steve replied. “It was nice working with you.”

“Working.” Danny interjected “Yeah, obviously  _ you _ will call it work.” he looked at the two but suddenly got the feeling that neither of them were aware of his existence. 

“Yes, it was kind of fun, Commander.” Ezra said “I’m sorry about your knee. And ribs. And…”

“Yeah, yeah,” Steve was laughing “I am sorry about your wrist, your lip...”

“Maybe on your next date” Danny tried again “you can crack each other’s heads open while jumping out of an aeroplane with only one parachute to fight over”.He was sure he was still talking to himself, but both pair of eyes suddenly glaring at him suggested differently. He smiled sheepishly.

After few seconds of silence Ya’el finally said “So...bye.”

“Goodbye, Ezra. Take care.”

“You too Commander. Detective.”

She turned to leave and was quickly out the door when Danny suddenly leapt to his feet. “Be right back,” he muttered and went out after her. He caught her few steps from the door

“Hey, Ezra.”

She turned, eyebrows slightly raised in question.

“I just wanted to say… thanks. For having his back, you know. I would rather you convinced him to stay in bed, but really, no one could have done  _ that _ , and you made sure this stupid, crazy plan of his would have some chance, even though you were injured too. It does not mean I am happy with what you dragged him into, but…”

“You are welcome detective.” She nodded and smiled. “I would be happy to have a chance to work with you guys again.”

“Oh no, no, once was more than enough, no offense.”

She laughed and turned to go. Danny, unwillingly, smiled at her back. 

 

When he went back into Steve’s room, he was greeted with a smug smile.

“Admit it.” Steve said, stifling a yawn “She’s not that bad.”

“Oh, yes she is.” Danny answered immediately shaking his head. “I just made sure she was indeed leaving. And never coming back. This woman is bad for your health.” he motioned at the man still in a hospital bed to emphasize his point.

“I’m fine, Danno.” Steve assured him “I’ll be out of here in a couple of days. And she did stop a major terrorist attack, you can’t say it wasn’t worth it.”

“Worth it?” Danny leaned forward then sent both hand flying through the air “Worth almost dying while diving 60 feet under to save your ass? Then getting shot at while storming into a hospital to save you again because you haven’t had the decency to accommodate the fact that you drowned and had your insides butchered with a fishing spear?”

“Did you have a better idea, Danny?” Steve laid his head back, he was obviously tried, the next yawning attack was not so easy to stifle. Danny could notice that, but couldn’t help himself.

“Well, maybe, if you had given me the chance to think of one before deciding on your own, yet again, to do what you probably thought was some kind of heroic act”. Danny’s hands were helping him express what he thought about the last two words, “but any other person in his right mind would see was a fatuous idiocy act. Yes I said fatuous, that only by miracle ended with you still breathing.” he looked straight at his partner “Pure luck, Steven.”

“You call it pure luck, but the bad guys are dead or locked up,” yawn, “and the good guys are safe”.

“You know what?” Danny got up, he fiddled with something outside of Steve’s line of sight “You are tired, and  _ lucky  _ for us, we can do this tomorrow morning again” with a quick move he latched one side of the handcuffs to Steve’s wrist.

“Danny, what are you doing?”

“And I am not taking any chances with you anymore,” he attached the other side to the bed railing, “So see you in the morning, sleep well”.

“Danny! Uncuff me!”

The detective walked out the door, ignoring the loud rattle of metal on metal from behind him, then looked back to his partner

“This isn’t funny, Danny!”

“Goodnight superSEAL” he let the door close behind him and walked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! hope you enjoyed :)


End file.
